Ride of a Lifetime

“Don’t you want to retire so you can do all the things you’ve ever dreamed about?” It’s a question that I’ve been asked a lot. My answer, “I have gotten to do way more than I could have ever imagined in my wildest dreams these last 50 years in Christian Camping!”

Little did we realize what was ahead when my husband, Stan, was finishing up his last trek of college education. We were lying on a blanket, soaking up the sun on a beach in California, when my sister asked a question that would hurl us into unbelievable adventures… “What’s the funnest thing you could ever imagine doing?” Stan immediately sat up and said, “Work at a camp!”

Stan quickly changed his major to Recreation Administration, and just months later, we were at Hartland Christian Camp in the California Sierra Mountains for a three-month work-learn experience as part of his degree. We called it “boot camp.” It was hard work, but we fell in love with Christian Camping and decided it was the good works that the Lord had prepared for us.

At that time, the Lord gave us a promise from Psalms 34:10: “…Those who seek the Lord shall lack no good thing.” We knew that working at a camp would not make us rich financially, but we held on to this promise.

Those three months at Hartland Camp turned into two years as Stan finished his last year of college, commuting to Fresno State University. To finish his degree, he was required to take a three-month internship. Stan had a list of camps he planned to investigate.

As the only registered dietitian working full-time in Christian Camping, I was invited to give three workshops at the 1977 Christian Camping International (CCI) Conference in Banff, Canada. At the first meal, we filed into the Banff Springs Hotel dining room and sat across from Bob and Murriel McDowell…and the rest is history! By the end of that meal, we all knew Stan and Nancy Nelson were going to Warm Beach Camp.

On May 1, 1978, we began working at Camp: Stan as the Recreation Director and I as the Food Service Director. Camping is like a family farm, and you do whatever is needed. Between the two of us, we’ve done everything at Camp except wrangling horses and working in the Business Office.

There’s no doubt that the Lord is the PROMISE KEEPER! We have lacked no good thing! Our lives have been packed with Kingdom purpose. We got to raise our two children while living on the campgrounds surrounded by a loving, extended Camp family.

Through time at Warm Beach Camp, we saw the exciting launch of The Lights of Christmas, the completion of two major funding campaigns, the start of the Kids 2 Camp scholarship program, and hosted countless Camp supporters at Stan’s and my house near Camp! I even ended up in Burundi, Africa, helping Sister Connection start up camps for widows and orphans of the genocide.

But it is now time to retire and pass on the baton to the younger generation. Come, help celebrate our 50 years in Christian Camping (48 of them at Warm Beach) on May 31, 2026 at 2 p.m., in the Program Center Auditorium at Warm Beach Camp.

Indeed, we aren’t the only ones impacted by the Camp’s ministry! Warm Beach Camp is celebrating its 70th anniversary, and we are collecting stories of impact. Please send in your Camp story to: thestory2026@warmbeach.com or The Story c/o Development, Warm Beach Camp, 20800 Marine Dr., Stanwood, WA 98292.

– Nancy Nelson, Director of Donor Relations
Warm Beach Camp